An exploration of how design has evolved in interaction with popular and material culture, drawing inspiration from technology as well as magic and the occult.
Hocus Pocus combines an essay, visuals and interviews to weave a dialogue between historical and contemporary works based on the notion of magic, from the time of the famous illusionist Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin to the present day. In a world supposedly demagified by the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of the modern entertainment industry, with its magic shows and mediumistic séances, demonstrates the enduring bewitchment of everyday life through a material culture invented by designers, filmmakers and artists, all of whom are magicians, even if they do not realise, let alone admit it. Whether used for magic tricks or spiritualist séances, the levitations, ectoplasms, vanishing boxes and rabbits pulled out of hats delight audiences while confronting their essential bewilderment about the world. This allows the art of conjuring, and the arts in general, to draw upon a world of ingenuity where everyday objects seem to either resist us or enable us to escape looming threats under the cover of dazzling feats of vanishing.
A professor of art and
design history and theory at
HEAD – Genève/HES-SO, Alexandra Midal is a practicing artist and independent curator whose research into visual culture translates into works, exhibitions, books and films.
